Pasadena City College Central
Concept Mobile Application Design
Timeline
Jun 2022 - Jul 2023
Tools
Figma
Scope of project
Personal Passion Project
Product Design, UX Research
Overview
Students at Pasadena City College have to navigate between 4 different websites in order to complete regular day-to-day tasks.
Opportunity
Create an app that allows students to access 4 online services to help students complete necessary tasks.
Research
I started research reviewing the current websites that PCC students use to access important information, clubs and organizations, and counseling services. I chose to omit Canvas by Instructure because of how separate Canvas is to the 3 different systems.
During my preliminary research, I interviewed 3 participants who were all students at Pasadena City College. Through mapping out major themes and patterns that students expressed they felt frustrations in, I found that:
Students want an easier way to search for, add/drop, and pay for classes.
Students would like a faster way to be able to reach support, connect with success coaches, and a much easier way to book counseling appointments.
Students who drive to PCC would like an easier way to see the current capacities of parking structures as well as the ability to purchase parking passes right from their phone.
Students want to be able to access information from anywhere. They don’t want to have to find a place to use a computer to access important info.
Many students at Pasadena City College have access to a mobile device. Thus, creating a mobile app for smart phones would be the best solution to this problem.
User Flow
I spent the first 3 days focusing on the Splash Page, Log In Page, Home Page, and Parking Pass Purchase Flow. While turning my lo-fi wireframes to hi-fi wireframes, I gained feedback from other DesignLab students as well as my mentor. I then started with creating an initial user flow in order for users to purchase parking passes.
With the user flow in mind, I sketched up a few ideas that would take a user through the permit purchasing journey. I then created low and high fidelity wireframes to turn those sketches into something more tangible.
Initial Sketches
From Lo-Fi Sketches to Hi-Fi Prototypes
Testing and iteration
After prototyping the major flows of the app, I conducted usability studies by presenting the prototype to a group of potential users. They were tasked with purchasing a semester parking pass. These were the key takeaways:
Many users found the Parking Information and Shuttle Information features useful. As Lot 5 tends to fill up quickly Mid-Day, students being able to see information that could save them up to 10 minutes driving to a new parking lot.
Currently PCC markets that their shuttles arrive every 15-30 minutes. However there is no way to see where the shuttles are currently and how long the estimated wait time is. Some intervals may take from a 5 minutes all the way to 40 minutes. Students who take the shuttle to the Allen St. Station on the Metro L / A line benefit greatly from this feature.
Students found the process of purchasing a new pass from the app very usable. However there was feedback that there was almost no more need until the following semester to have a button to purchase a new pass on display each time. That area may be filled with something else of more importance.
In Short
PCC Central was my first ever major project that allowed me to learn much more about User Experience and User Interface design. Using the skills that I learned from the Google Career Certificate, I was able to create an accessible design that could potential benefit the thousands of students at Pasadena City College. As I continue my design journey at Pasadena City College, my goal remains to learn more about accessible design through research and user-driven data in order to create efficient designs in the future that meet user needs as well as business KPI needs.